The sweetness keeps on coming...

Wow I love this kid. This morning Noah was watching me comb my hair and he wanted to hold the comb. He was sitting on my lap and I gave it to him to hold. When I gave it to him he smiled and tried to comb my hair...how sweet is that?! He's so smart! Noah has also discovered the magic of the cardboard box...

Matt likes to call it his boogie mobile since we take him on rides around the apartment in it. He loves it!

Noah also loves feeding himself (his dinner can take close to an hour now that he feeds himself part of it)! He shares my love of avocados, although I'm a little neater when I eat them. Don't worry, we save the messy foods for his bath nights. You can also see that he has gotten a third bottom tooth in (that makes 7 total!)

Oh, and have I mentioned that Noah started saying Dada and Mama? Dada started a week or two ago, but he was withholding the Mama for a while. He would toy with starting to say it, he would call me Dada...but today he started calling me Mama. Oh the joy such a little being brings!

Happy Birthday Riley!

Can you believe that Riley turned one last weekend?! She was a tentative about the cake at first, but then she got the idea...

Noah and Lillian

Elisa posted a video of Lillian and Noah playing together (with a short cameo by Judah). Check out Elisa's post, or watch it on YouTube. Yea Elisa, thanks for being so great at blogging!

Skipping Steps

Noah has decided that he'd rather skip crawling and go straight to walking. Every chance he gets he pulls himself up to standing and cruises. Some would say that by skipping the crawling stage Noah will miss some vital motor skill development. Matt and I think that Noah's case is different. He seriously army crawls and does get up on his knees to occasionally do the traditional crawl. He just doesn't want to take the time to work on it when he can be working on walking instead. Today I helped him get his belly off the floor a couple of times and he crawled masterfully...it just takes so much energy to get that big belly off the floor. That said, we are encouraging him to continue crawling, but we aren't knocking him over every time he tries to walk either (although I seriously contemplated it Elisa!)

Looking so much like a little boy and not as much like a baby...mixed feelings to say the least.

Yes, the fact that large tupperware containers of Noah's clothes have become part of our furniture lately does give him more things to pull up on. He'll be so sad if I put them away...

So sweet! This is actually the first step of Noah using Matt to pull up to standing.

Christmas

Happy Birthday Jesus! Matt and I gave Noah 3 gifts and plan on continuing this trend in the future. Why would we do that? So many good reasons. We gave him 3 gifts to represent the gifts of the magi that were brought to Jesus when he was born (three also representing our Triune God). Additionally I could easily rant about the commercialism of Christmas, how it has grievously become a pagan holiday and that it is so easy for kids to think that they deserve to receive, when they should really focus on giving...but I'm not going to rant. Disagree if you want, we won't stop other people from giving Noah presents...but we won't change our minds either, so don't try to make us.

At first Noah liked playing with his wrapped toys more than his unwrapped toys...he was a bit confused about the whole unwrapping thing. Matt ended up getting me a camcorder for Christmas (LOVE that hubby, he always spoils me!) so the whole thing is captured on video...but I just have the one picture for the morning. We went over to Mom and Dad's around 2 to celebrate with the family.

Beth got lots of good pictures of Noah and Riley together. What a precious girl she is...and she's walking already!

Riley (like her counterpart Allison) likes to show Noah who's boss when they're together...we're curious about how long Noah will let them get away with this abuse!

Aww, they do love eachother!

Micah helped Noah open a couple of his presents.

I don't think I have ever seen Noah as ready for bed as he was by this time. (Perhaps skipping his morning nap and only getting in a 50 minute afternoon nap along with lots and lots of action the rest of the day was the culprit?) Yes, poor baby needs sleep.

What happened to December?

I know, it's been a long time. Ridiculous...I'll get to the good stuff fast. So now that Noah has 6 teeth (and more on their way in) we brush his teeth every night.

I know this looks like Matt is torturing the poor kid, but Noah really loves it...he just prefers to be the one holding the toothbrush.

Football Season and the Giants are in the playoffs! Noah is a big Giants fan and looks so handsome in his official Giants outfit (thanks Greg & Jenny)! It's big enough to fit him next season, but not too big for us to put him in it this season!

"I don't do mistletoe" Love it!

Noah loves reading with us and has gotten really good at turning the pages. His favorite book right now is "Daddy Loves Me"...so sweet!